100926 Back in the USA

Scenic Byway - I've enjoyed all the fall color in the little towns I've driven through on this trip. My last drive through Canada was another scenic byway. Honestly, every road I drove on in Canada was scenic! High, green fir-covered hills with splotches of golden.

US Border – (Sunday) I think I just need to tell them up front that I’m semi-retired when I'm at border crossings. The ICE guys seem suspicious of my free-wheeling attitude and lack of a schedule. This time they inspected my fridge to make sure that it contained no other fruits or vegetables except the yellow onions I declared! The Customs guy made a comment that made me think that, actually, he just wanted to see the inside of my RV. :-)

Groceries – I had not bought groceries the whole time I was in Canada because they are so expensive, so I stopped in Bonner’s Ferry, Idaho, for groceries. I felt like a kid in a candy store – so much selection! Reasonable prices! I could buy anything I wanted! When I made this comment to the grocery store clerk, he reminded me that the Canadians have free health care, though. Good point. There are trade-offs no matter where you live.


Blue Lake CG – I’m staying at the nicest little campground, beside a pretty little lake in northern Idaho. I walked part way around the lake when I got here. Quiet. Serene. The owner is very friendly and helpful. There is a human-sized chess set by the lake and a seat with scope and birding book set up so you can watch the birds on the lake. Their love and care for this place is evident everywhere. I would recommend this campground.

Home - It feels good to be back in the USA. It was a wonderful trip, one I hope to repeat, sooner, not later, but there's no place like home.

100925 Meadows in the Sky

Meadows in the Sky Parkway – I drove through two more (small) national parks today: Glacier [photo left] - the Canadian one - and Mount Revelstoke [below]. I took a couple hikes and enjoyed views of more snow-topped mountains, but the drive up Mount Revelstoke on the Meadows in the Sky Parkway was the high point for sure. It helped that the sun came out and it turned into a gorgeous afternoon. I stopped and had lunch in my RV, at a "scenic turnout" part-way up the mountain, with a view of the town of Revelstoke and the Columbia River valley below. Once I got to the top, the best view was from the fire tower, for sure: incredible views of snow-topped mountains to the north, with beautiful Lake Eva in the valley below. Then I walked part of the way on the Meadows in the Sky loop that takes you to the east side of the summit, where I looked out on more snow-topped mountains, as far as the eye could see. I had the trail to myself, one of the advantages of coming so late in the season. A statue of an Indian lifting his pipe and singing in homage to the Great Spirit had been placed there, and it evoked the sense of wonder and awe appropriate for this powerful place.

Ferry – About 25 minutes from Revelstoke, there is a free ferry across Arrow Lake, which seems to have been created by damming the Columbia. This ferry is just part of the highway system, as it is the only way to get from one side of this large lake to the other, and this is the only road. I waited about 30 minutes, but the ferry itself only took about 15 minutes. This part of BC seems very remote. Wilderness, even, except for the logging they’re doing here. I saw a few men putting their canoes into the water at the ferry landing. This is wilderness, with civilization just around the corner.

100924 Yoho National Park & Eagle's Eye

Yoho - I drove through Yoho National Park this morning. I was planning to see Takakkaw Falls ("takakkaw" means "magnificent" in the Cree language), but, I turned around when I couldn’t make the second curve on the switchbacks. The signs had said “no trailers” and “7 meter limit”, but I’m just a little over 6.7 meters so I wasn’t worried about it. Then I had to go forward and back, and forward and back, to make it around the turn, and that was only the second one, and I didn’t know how many more there were, so I turned back. That's the first time that's happened to me, that I haven't been able to make the turns on a switchback road. :-(

I stopped at Natural Bridge. The bridge wasn’t much – it was tiny, in the middle of the river [photo above]. But the river was that gorgeous glacier-melt azure blue, and the sun came out for just two minutes while I was taking pictures there. Very pretty.

I drove up to aptly-named Emerald Lake, another pretty little alpine lake. But the highlight of the day, without a doubt, was my lunch at the Eagle's Eye Restaurant outside of Golden, BC. Golden is an aptly-named city, as there are golden birches and aspen on the hills and golden cottonwoods in the valleys all around the town. I drove the 8 miles or so up to the Kicking Horse lodge, where I got on the gondola that took me up to the top of the mountain, and, boy!, was that a ride! It just kept going up and up. By far the highest ski lift/gondola ride I've been on. The brush was golden and orange and red and the birches were golden. The views at the top are touted as the "best views in British Columbia" and I can see why. It was sprinkling when I started out, and lightly snowing up on the mountain when I first got there. But it quit snowing, and the sun even came out for a few minutes before I left. They sat me at a window table, so I had a view of the mountains while I ate. The windows are all huge. The best views were from the "back deck", though - mountaintops as far as you can see. Incredible! I ordered their pasta special, beef mushroom stroganoff on wild rice, which was a treat (a little dry, though tasty). I’d gotten a coupon for $10 off from the Information Center, so I got a real good deal on it. The Eagle's Eye goes on my list of recommended restaurants, because the views are incomparable, and the ride to the top of the mountain is an unforgettable experience. From my seat, I could see the bikers starting off on their run down the mountain (they took the ski lift ride up). Amazing ride they had ahead of them! There were black bears on the mountain halfway down, they said, and I could see the group of people watching the bear, as my gondola whizzed by, but I couldn't see the bears.

CG – I stopped early (5 PM) because I was tired. I'm at a campground in a little town outside of Golden. The views here are great, with mountains in every direction. “sigh” I thought I was going to get WIFI at this cg tonight, but it wouldn't connect. :-(

Flicker n Jays - The first thing I noticed here in the campground is Stellar’s Jays hanging around the office and yard, then I noticed a Northern Flicker. First time I'd seen one. And I realized that it’s the one that sounds like a Star Wars laser gun that I've been hearing from time to time, ever since Oregon. The German-accented owner says that his daughter feeds the jays, and they follow her around as she’s working in the yard, which explains why they let me get so close. One jay got so close to me that my camera wouldn’t focus on him, and he was talking to me like crazy. I would enjoy having them around. The views here from the campground are fantastic, on all sides. The owner says that they winter in Arizona!

100923 Lake Louise & Banff

Sun/Weather – I woke up early and got on the road right away. I had two hours of sunshine before it became mostly cloudy, which it stayed for the rest of the day. It sprinkled on me a couple times, but no rain, though.

Color – I drove through my favorite part of Jasper/Banff parks late yesterday afternoon and early this morning. There was incredible color from golden birches (along with the usual snow-topped mountains and incredible vistas) on this part of the drive. Too bad the sun wasn’t really good either time. Next time!! (That’s what I keep telling myself, that this is just my first trip, the one where I hit the high points, so I know where I want to spend more time next time I come.)

Lake Louise – Drove to Lake Louise. Stopped and saw the lake. Beautiful, for sure. All the canoers on the lake spoiled the view a little when I first got there. Had lunch at the Fairmont Chateau Hotel right on the edge of the lake, in the Lakeview Lounge. They sat me next to a huge window with a great view of the lake. I had a very good crab and corn bisque. (This one goes on your list of recommended restaurants, Laura. Be sure to ask for a table by a window.)

Moraine Lake – I drove up to this beautiful alpine lake. It’s higher up in the mountains. Windier. It was a lot colder there. Just as I got there, however, the sun came out and shone on the lake, showing its incredible aquamarine color. I took some pictures fast, then left. It was too cold for me. The drive there and back was great, though. More fantastic vistas.

Banff – In the afternoon I drove down Hwy 1 to the town of Banff. There are bridges over the road with trees on them, that I found out later are wildlife crossings. They said that they have been a success, many fewer animal/vehicle accidents, so they were building a couple more of them. Banff is a lot bigger than Lake Louise. I drove around town a little, spent a little time at a city park, Cascade Ponds, then drove the Minnewanka Loop. This city park is surely the most beautiful I have seen. Snow-covered mountain views [photo right], and a view of an amazingly long waterfall [photo below] falling down the nearby mountain. There were more incredible views on the Minnewanka Loop [photo above], and a mama bighorn sheep and her young one visited with me for awhile, hoping for a handout, I'm afraid. I stopped at the Safeway store, but didn’t end up buying much as everything was so expensive. Last thing I did was to drive to/by the Vermillion Lakes, a marshy area with mountains in the background. I joined a few other photographers as we all stood around, waiting for the sun to occasionally peek through the clouds. Next time I will spend more time in this town.

100922 Mt. Robson Provincial Park & Icefields Parkway

Mount Robson PP - Today was a very satisfying day. After days of glimpses of snow-topped mountains, today I finally got a good look at them. It was a clear, sunny day today. (Hurray!) I decided to drive back into BC, along the drive I took yesterday to get to Jasper, through Mt. Robson Provincial Park. And I wasn’t disappointed. It was a delight. I stopped at Yellowhead Lake [photo left] and Moose Lake [photo below right], and the marshy area I’d passed yesterday [below left]. I stopped at the Visitor Center to see Mt. Robson in the sunshine. [below right] The birches are turning gold. The mountains are snow-topped and are everywhere along the route. The water is blue. I don’t see how it could be a more beautiful drive.

Icefields Parkway - Then in the afternoon I headed down the famous Icefields Parkway that runs between Jasper and Lake Louise. This drive is rated as one of the ten most scenic in North America, and I certainly wouldn’t argue with that. It’s hard to imagine how a drive could be more scenic than this one. I read recently that there are no words to describe this drive. More spectacular beauty. Even more golden birches. (I love those birches! Such elegant looking trees.) Even more, and higher, white-topped mountains.

Columbia Icefield - My friend Beck had sent me, some years back, a description of her trip out on the Athabasca Glacier (part of the Columbia Icefield), in Jasper NP. And her description made me decide that was something I wanted to do, if I ever got the chance, despite the pricey fee ($50). And am I ever glad I did. (Thank you, Beck.) A bus takes you to the edge of the glacier, where you get on a vehicle they call a “sno cruiser”, but its tires are huge (almost as tall as me). That’s the vehicle that takes you out on the glacier. I sat in the front seat, which is what I usually do, if it’s available. You get a better view, and, as I get older, my motion sickness gets worse, so it helps with that too. I had no clue what was coming, so I had an excellent view of the 32% downhill grade in the road ahead, and just about lost my lunch when I realized he was going to drive over the edge and down that road! But, it was perfectly safe. The vehicle is locked into first gear and has huge treads. They “haven’t lost anyone yet”, as they say. The vehicles are built specifically for the “ice road”, as they call it. Each vehicle cost $750,000 when they bought them a few years ago. (Later the driver told me about a co-worker who put the vehicle in neutral by mistake instead of first gear, on her first time down alone, with a tour group. Everyone on the vehicle thought the ride was just part of the thrill of the experience and was yelling “Whee” as the drive burned the rubber off the brakes the whole way down. Yikes!)

We went through a “puddle”, then the driver told us it was there on purpose, to clean away any mud and debris off the tires, so as not to bring any debris onto the glacier.

The driver said that we were at the world's only three-way continental divide, that goes to three oceans: Arctic, Pacific, and Atlantic.

Where we walked around the glacier, it was 1000 feet thick. Since it was a beautiful, sunny day, I had a much more pleasant experience than Beck did (cold, windy). They’d had about six inches of snow recently, so it was just like walking around on the snow in North Dakota. We were close enough to the Andromeda glacier, however, that I could see the blue tint of the ice.

All-in-all, the experience of a lifetime. Something I won’t ever forget.

I stopped at the first campground inside of Banff National Park this evening. I wanted to get down out of the high country before I stopped for the night, as it was going to be below freezing again (second night in a row).

A guy in the cg last night said he’d been to Banff NP several times before, and this was the first clear day he’d seen. So I am fortunate. I’m fortunate in another way also. From a photographer’s point of view, the timing of this visit to Canada couldn’t have been better. The golden birches are peaking. The six inches of snow they got recently has dusted all the mountains with white. If I’d gotten here even two days ago, only the highest mountains would be white-topped (the ones with glaciers). It's a good thing I spent a couple extra unplanned days in Buckley, and a couple extra unplanned days in Sequim. :-) Things always work out for the best.

I saw a few “caribou crossing” signs today. First time I’ve ever seen one of those. Didn’t see any caribou, though. :-(

I cried my way through BC this morning. Then I cried some more on the Icefields Parkway. I was so moved by the beautiful vistas. So grateful to be here. So thankful to have a Creator with such magnificent skill :-) and love for us, that She creates so abundantly, extravagantly, joyfully.

100921 Columbia Mountains & Jasper National Park

Columbia Mountains – The whole drive today was scenic. It started out with high hills, yellow aspens, birches, and cottonwoods, waterfalls, rivers, lakes. Beautiful. But overcast. The further north I got, the more yellow trees. At some point I saw my first glimpse of a snow-covered mountain top. And they kept getting more frequent, as I went through the Columbia Mountains, until at the visitor center in Mount Robson Provincial Park, there were snow-covered mountains in all directions.

Elk – I saw four elk in my first 20 minutes in the Jasper National Park. Two bulls with large racks. It’s rut season, and I heard both males bugle. First I saw one bull herding a female. “This one’s mine; stay away.” Then I saw another bull, very close to my RV. In fact, I heard them bugling as I was going to sleep at night. Sometimes they sounded very close, like they were in the campground.
I drove through the small town of Jasper, and got a good view of the mountains to the northeast as the sun was setting. The views in every direction are awesome.

100920 Yellowhead Scenic Highway

Snow – As I was unplugging my electric connection this morning, I glanced up at the mountains, and saw a dusting of snow! While it was raining down here last night, it was snowing up in the mountains. Beautiful! When I went by the post office I asked about the roads through the mountains. No snow where I was going, they said. As it turned out, the road I took was above the snow line for part of the way, but, still, the roads were fine. The ground is so warm that the snow has no chance of sticking until you get pretty high, and, even there, there was no snow sticking on the road. But the dusting of snow made for a beautiful drive. Even so, I was relieved when I got to Hwy 5, which is a major highway, and off 99 and 97, which are smaller roads.

Yellowhead Scenic Hwy – The road from Kamloops to Clearwater is designated scenic the whole way. Shoot, everywhere I’ve driven in BC, since I got to Vancouver, has been a scenic drive! The road goes in the valley in between the mountains, along the Kamloops Lake, then along the Thompson River. Part of this drive you would consider "high desert", and there was lots of sagebrush and other desert-like things. The area around Kamloops Lake reminded me of Roosevelt Lake in Arizona [photo above right]! That surprised me. But as I get further north, there are more yellow birch and aspen and cottonwoods mixed in with dark green fir trees. I saw a golden eagle flying above the Thompson River.

My BC Weather Girl – My BC Weather Girl lives in Arizona!! I called my mother and asked her to check the weather forecast for Jasper and Clearwater for tonight. She said it’s supposed to get down to 24 in Jasper tonight but only 34 in Clearwater, so I will stay in Clearwater tonight. But after tomorrow, the weather forecast for Jasper is warmer, and clear! Hurray!

100919 BC Coast & Sea-to-Sky Highway

Metric – I got on the Internet for just a couple minutes this morning (they've warned me it could cost me as much as $20 for 5 megs in Canada), to convert kilograms and metres, so I would know which bridges I can go under (11 feet is 3.85 metres) and what my weight is. I don’t have to worry unless they restrict the road to 5000 kg or under).

Coast – I spent the morning driving up the coast. The highway along the coast was awesome (Howe Sound, actually). Or, I could tell that it would be awesome, if the clouds weren’t obscuring most of the mountains. The coastline is more rugged than any other I've seen. The mountains are higher. Reminds me of the Big Sur coastline in California. Only more. Bigger. More rugged. This is definitely a drive that I want to take some time when the weather is better, and take more time. I stopped at two provincial parks and saw Shannon Falls and Brandywine Falls, each impressive in its own way: Shannon Falls [right], because it falls so far, from way high up in the mountain. Reminded me of the falls in Norway (though the Norway falls are longer); Brandywine [left] because it's a full river falls, and perfect. And the sun came out and shown on the falls just as I was going to take my picture. :-)

Squamish – I stopped at the Wal-Mart here to pick up some meat and cheese for sandwiches. I was surprised at the small selections of everything. There were few choices on the meats, few choices on the cheeses. And the cheeses were sold only in bigger blocks, packaging that I’ve never seen before. Like, if you make it in to town, you’re only going to buy big quantities, to last you till the next time you make it in to town, maybe. But the VIEW from the parking lot, with the mountain peaks looming above!!! Incredible. Much of the land that I'm driving through is Squamish Nation Territory, and I see evidence of that in the signs and totems as I drive along. Many place names in BC are from the native languages, or First Peoples, as they are called here. They are unfamiliar to me, and some are completely impossible to read or pronounce (like TK'EMLUPS Car Wash).

Sea-to-Sky Highway - This route took me through Whistler. I had planned to take the peak-to-peak gondola ride, but with the clouds and the rain, I wouldn’t have seen much, so I will save that for next time I’m here, when the weather is better. I saw only glimpses of Mt. Garibaldi, though I can tell from the glimpses that the views in Whistler would be spectacular on a clear, sunny day. I definitely want to come back some day when I can spend more time and really see it. I got gas for the first time in BC, for $1.094 per litre ($4.26 per gallon).

CG – I saw a sign for a B&B and RV campground in Lillooet and stopped. I’ve never stayed at a place like this before. This guy has made three RV sites on his property, and built a little cabin. Actually, paying $25 for a site with only 10 amp power, and no shower, and no WIFI, is a little steep. But I am too tired to go any further today and it's at least 2 1/2 hours over the mountains. It’s different also in that he advertises that he speaks German, and he was obviously a little disappointed when I told him I did not. The other couple staying here does speak German. I guess the owner is probably a German ex-pat. I have a wonderful view of the mountains. And it’s very quiet here. I learned one thing: My laptop works fine when I'm running on 10 amps. I did finally see some RVs today, in the provincial parks parking lots and on the scenic road I was on all afternoon. Makes me feel better, that I’m not the only one on the road. :-)